


Destiny

by cian1675



Series: Destiny [1]
Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crack, Don't worry, Gen, Idol!woohyun, M/M, Red String of Fate, Soulmates, Tags will update as chapters are updated, There's plot, Yeolna, crackish, fem!Sungyeol, idol!Sunggyu, idol!hoya, it's not supposed to be super serious, notidol!Woohyun, so maybe lowkey crack, there's other relationships and characters so stay tuned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8701960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/pseuds/cian1675
Summary: Woohyun wakes up in a parallel universe, and he doesn't know why he's even here. Or why there's another Woohyun in this universe, a Woohyun who's a freaking idol, and whose face is plastered on posters and shops.
Except... hadn't he shouted something stupid in a fit of anger the night before?
 
  “Won’t it be better if I can just date myself?”





	1. WOOHYUN

_ WOOHYUN _

He doesn’t mean it, but Woohyun’s tired of arguing about this same thing over and over with his boyfriend. Before he registers what he’s doing, he hears himself shout, “How will _I_ know what you’re thinking if you don’t _tell_ me anything?”

His words are met with only silence – another case of him not telling Woohyun what he really thinks – though Woohyun really shouldn’t be surprised at that at this point. It’s just as well, because Woohyun’s sick of fighting about the same thing for the umpteenth time already. Standing up, he picks up his jacket to leave, letting the front door close without looking back.

_Maybe this will go better when we’re not talking about it at two in the morning_ , Woohyun thinks, rubbing a hand over his face as he kicks a crushed can by the side of the road. He’s frustrated, and it’s the reason why he sighs.

“Won’t it be better if I can just date _myself_?” He says aloud to no one in particular.

There’s no one on the streets but it’s not like he’s expecting an answer anyway. He kind of just wonders what it’ll be like if there isn’t the issue of miscommunication because _someone_ doesn’t talk to the other in a relationship. Woohyun feels his lips turn up at the thought – an almost smile that’s more bitter than anything – but it makes his heart sink and he sighs again.

He should really just hurry home so he can sleep it off and think about it in the morning.

 

 

Sleep does wonders for his mood.

When he wakes up, the first thing Woohyun wants to do is to pick up the phone and call – call to apologize, call to talk things over because he thinks he shouldn’t have left like that yesterday – but then he realizes he’s lying at a bench in the park. He looks around, and yeah, he’s _definitely_ not dreaming. He’s most definitely in a park, lying on a wooden bench hidden by some trees and on top of that, he’s _cold_.

Rubbing his arms to warm up a little, Woohyun frowns as he tries to remember what happened last night. He’s pretty sure he had made it home last night after kicking all the cans on the side of the road on his way back. He distinctly remembers spending half a minute debating if he should shower before he lies on the bed or just lie on the bed and change out the sheets tomorrow because he hates getting his sheets dirty with his outside clothes, and he recalls having decided on the latter. It’ll make sense because he’s still wearing the same long-sleeved tee and jeans he had on yesterday, proving that he really did fall asleep without showering first. But then, it doesn’t make sense why he’ll be here at a _park_ , when he’s almost certain he had fallen asleep somewhere else – his own _bed_ – last night.

_This makes no sense at all_ , Woohyun thinks, but what makes even less sense is how when he takes out his phone to call, it tells him that his boyfriend’s number – the same number he had called just yesterday morning – is not in service.

He’s not sure what to feel at this point.

_Fuck. I messed up, didn’t I?_

But then when he tries to call Sunggyu to tell him what happened (ask him how to solve this), his number is not in service either. Or for all that matter, any of his other friends’. Woohyun tries every number on his contact list, even the people he hardly talks to, but no one seems to have a working number.

_What is going on?_

On a whim, Woohyun tries the number for his favourite chicken restaurant, and for once, he hears a dial tone instead of a mechanized voice telling him the number is not in use. Two rings later, someone picks up.

“Choding Chicken Restaurant! How may I help you –”

Woohyun hangs up. He doesn’t need to order chicken, but he’s also somewhat surprised that out of everything, the restaurant with the lame name is the only thing that has a working number. At first he was worried that his boyfriend might have cancelled his number, but there’s no reasonable explanation why a hundred or so of his contacts would all suddenly cancel their phone numbers as well. It doesn’t make sense, but Woohyun’s starting to think very little of what he’s discovering since waking up makes any sense.

It’s probably the reason why he finds himself walking over to the chicken place once he figures out how to get there from the park.

 

 

The chicken place looks the same as Woohyun remembers, but once he steps into the shop, he realizes he doesn’t recognize any of the staff. _Strange._ He goes to the counter, not too sure what he wants to do, but decides to order some chicken after his stomach rumbles.

“A-are you…” the girl at the counter peeks at him from behind her lashes, and Woohyun frowns. It’s too early for this, he thinks, and is about to tell her he’s not interested in her flirting, when she suddenly gushes, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I saw you here!”

_What?_

“Ah, oppa, you don’t need to hide, I _know_ ,” she says, and Woohyun wants to ask what’s going on but she points at the poster at the back. “Shh, you might want to be careful because we have posters of INFINITE everywhere, but if you sit at the back, I’ll make sure no one disturbs you!”

Woohyun looks at the poster, and it’s just some idol boy band that he’s about to dismiss until he notices something. Or more precisely, he notices the face of one of members on the INFINITE poster –eyes with a slight downturn in the corners making them look sad, thick lips and a sharp nose. It’s the same face he sees every time he looks into a mirror, albeit with tons of makeup on.

Woohyun blinks, once, twice, and he thinks he’s seeing things because the guy looks just like him, is even called freaking Woohyun (the poster has each idol’s name printed above their heads) and if things made very little sense since he woke up this morning, they just make even less sense now.

 

 

Somehow he manages not to freak out on the girl at the counter, nodding along to her assumptions that he must be _that_ Woohyun-oppa. He lets her bring him to his seat at the corner of the restaurant, grateful for some privacy even if he’s not who she thinks he is. Right now, he’s eating wings as he stares at one of the many INFINITE posters plastered over the restaurant walls. He had taken the time to calm himself down, and as Woohyun looks at the poster again, seeing not just his face on one of the idol members, but also Sunggyu’s (the idol who has Sunggyu’s face is even called Sunggyu as well, though he looks much _much_ cooler than the Sunggyu he knows, _and there’s someone who looks like he might be… no, but the makeup is too thick to tell and maybe Woohyun’s just mistaken_ ), Woohyun comes to the only explanation his mind can think of.

This is a parallel universe.

There’s no other good explanation for why there’s someone who’s called Woohyun and looks just like him here, and not only that, someone who’s called Sunggyu and looks just like Gyu-hyung as well. It’s too much of a coincidence, Woohyun thinks, and it might explain a little about why his phone doesn’t work in this place (though why the number for the chicken place works, he has no clue).

He’s not sure what to make of this.

Not only that, if this is really a parallel universe, Woohyun isn’t sure why he’s here. Why and how did he even travel to this parallel universe? And isn’t he violating some law of physics (or something) by appearing here? And _oh_ , will he have to kill the other Woohyun? Or – _gasp_ – will the other Woohyun kill him first?

Woohyun sneaks a quick glance around to make sure no one saw him freak out, but all he sees is the girl at the counter give him a smile and a reassuring wink, so he quickly looks back at this food. Okay, so maybe he has read too many comics, but Woohyun’s still pretty sure that there’s some reason why he’s here in a parallel universe (at least, there is usually a reason for waking up in a parallel universe in all the comic books he has read). If he can figure out the reason, maybe he can get back to his own world. Woohyun looks at the phone in his hand. He really wants to call his boyfriend now, but he can’t. He wonders if he misses him.

_I shouldn’t have done that last night_ , Woohyun sighs, as he stares at the useless piece of plastic on his hand. _I should have told him I love him, instead of walking out_.

He feels a lump forming in his throat, and Woohyun has to cough a little to disperse it. He won’t cry here, damn it. He’s about to finish his food and leave, when he suddenly remembers what he had said last night while walking home.

_“Won’t it be better if I can just date myself?”_

Surely… surely that’s not the reason why he’s here in this parallel universe… right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was contemplating finishing the whole fic before I even upload a chapter but I don't have that sort of self-control, lol. So have the first chapter and I'll like to know what you think of the idea so far :) I've already planned the whole story, and there's more to it than this (the title is called "Destiny" for a reason), but I think it's fair to say that this fic will be somewhat ridiculous/lowkey (highkey?) crack. I can't ever really tell if what I'm writing is crack but you can judge for yourself. There's romantic pairings, but I'll tag it when it comes up in the chapter so I don't spoiler anything :)
> 
> Any guesses who Woohyun's boyfriend is? ;)


	2. WOOHYUN

_ WOOHYUN _

The first thing he does once he finishes eating is research. Woohyun finds the nearest Internet café and pays for an hour at the computer. He would have preferred more time for research, but there isn’t much cash left in his wallet, though Woohyun supposes he should be glad that he even has money (if he had showered before he slept, he’ll be in boxers only and that would have been a horrible way to travel across parallel universes…). Once the computer boots up, he quickly settles in and types up what he can think of to search.

_Parallel universe. How to get back to my original universe. Dimension travelling._

When he runs out of search terms and is no closer to figuring out how to get back home, Woohyun pinches the bridge of his nose. His hour is almost up, and he’s considering if he can spare paying for another hour of Internet. He doesn’t know how long he might be stuck here for, and it’ll be wise to budget his cash, especially since his credit card hadn’t worked earlier when he tried it. To be honest though, after the phone numbers incident, Woohyun hadn’t been holding on to much hope of his cards working, but he had to try. Slumping in his seat, Woohyun is weighing the cost and benefits of doing more (potentially useless) research, or just going somewhere else and try to figure things out, when he hears a girl’s voice.

“Yeolna, stop rushing me! The INFINITE fansign isn’t for another hour! Let me finish this game!”

INFINITE? Woohyun immediately recalls his earlier guess. He’s not sure if the answer to getting back is to date himself (or rather, date the _other_ Woohyun), but there’s no harm trying that, right? It’s a lame plan, but Woohyun can’t think of anything else so he tries not to consider how ridiculous the situation is, or that he’s following two teenage girls as they head off to (what he thinks is) an INFINITE fansign with little idea of what he’s going to do after that.

Not only that, idol fansigns aren’t really his thing, especially not for male groups (that’s more up Sunggyu’s lane), and he’s not sure how things will go. Will he even be able to talk to the other Woohyun? Ducking his head to hide his face as he boards the bus after the two girls, Woohyun quickly finds a seat where they won’t notice him, and he sighs. If Sunggyu-hyung ever learns of this, he’ll never hear the end of his teasing.

 

 

When he gets to the venue, Woohyun isn’t surprised that there’s already a bunch of girls standing around. What he’s mildly surprised by is the fact that they’re all clutching tickets and CDs and various other merchandise.

_Of course this thing needs a ticket. Of course. Did you think it’ll be so easy?_

Woohyun huffs as he leans against a low wall. Maybe he can try loitering around, and see if he can catch the other Woohyun when the fansign thing ends. But he doesn’t think it’ll work, because he spots security checking each of the girls entering, and he doesn’t think the idols will ever be in a situation where Woohyun can just walk up to them without getting past all these layers of security.

_Great. Just my luck. Why does my other self have to be an idol? Why can’t he be just a guy working somewhere where I can walk in and say hi, like a chicken restaurant? That’ll make things so much simpler._

Woohyun’s wondering if he should just loiter and try anyway – because this whole thing is a pretty ridiculous attempt to begin with, and there’s no harm in just going through with the plan since it’s already so messed up and it’s not like he has anything to lose – when someone walks up to him. It’s the girl from the Internet café earlier, one of the two he had been following. Now that she’s standing in front of Woohyun, he can see that not only is she ridiculously tall, made taller by her hair being up in a bun, but she’s also actually kind of pretty. When he had been following the girls, he had only seen their backs, and he had been mostly focused on not walking too close to them at that time. Now that he’s facing this girl though (who’s really quite cute despite her height and lanky limbs), he wonders if she recognizes him from earlier. Woohyun doesn’t lift his head up too much, just glares at her and hopes she’ll leave, but she doesn’t.

After a while, she says, “You look a lot like Woohyun-oppa.”

Woohyun blinks, because that’s not what he expected her to say, though he supposes he’s glad that she hadn’t realized he had followed her here (in a totally non-creepy, non-stalkerish way of course). “Uhh…”

He’s not sure what else to say, and it’s obvious that unlike the girl at the chicken restaurant earlier, this girl doesn’t actually think he’s the _other_ Woohyun. He’s wondering what’s a good explanation for why he looks so much like the other Woohyun, when the girl’s face suddenly light up like she thought of something smart.

“Ah! It’s plastic, right?”

He only stares at her, frozen.

The girl continues, like she hadn’t noticed, “Oh wow, I admire your dedication to your bias that you’ll actually get surgery just to look like him.”

Woohyun’s thinking of what could possibly be an appropriate response in this situation when the girl suddenly giggles.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Yeolna.” A bow. “I came here with a friend but she had to go off for an emergency so I have an extra ticket. I was looking for a fan who came here without a ticket to give this to, and you look like you’ll make good use of it. Here.”

Before he realizes what’s going on, a fansign ticket is thrusted into his hands, and Yeolna is gone as quickly as she came.

 

 

Woohyun’s regretting not having something to hide his face – a cap, a pair of sunglasses or even just a shirt with a hood – because he’s drawing unwanted attention as he moves into the fansign venue.

_“…doesn’t he look a lot like Woohyun-oppa?”_

_“Shh, don’t stare!”_

_“Omo, do you think he might be related to Woohyunnie? Kyaaa~”_

Woohyun ignores most of the comments and tries to pretend like he’s just a regular fan of… _what was the group’s name again? … oh yeah_ , INFINITE. But then someone actually comes up to him and asks why he looks so much like Woohyun. When he hears the excuse he gives them, Woohyun’s not sure if he should thank Yeolna for the brilliant idea, or regret even considering the ridiculous explanation.

“I, uh, got my face surgically altered to look like my …b-bias.” (Or maybe he should thank Sunggyu for being such a fanboy that he even knows what “bias”, “stan” and all the other fangirl vocabulary mean.)

“Wow, such a Woohyun stan!” someone cries, but some of the other fangirls look at him with what he thinks is disgust on their face. Or maybe it’s amazement at his supposed dedication towards the idol group, Woohyun can’t tell. He’ll never be able to tell with fangirls. Though to be honest, Woohyun doesn’t really get fanboying or fangirling in general, but at least he has had Sunggyu’s fanboying to observe so he isn’t completely out of his depth here, pretending to be an INFINITE fanboy.

“Uhh, thanks,” Woohyun mumbles, and tries to duck his head so his fringe hides his eyes for the rest of the duration he has to wait.

 

 

When he’s seated at the designated seat (Yeolna strangely nowhere in sight, not that he really cares, but of course he does, a little, because she’s the reason why he even got in here in the first place), Woohyun wonders how he’ll be able to tell the other Woohyun. He didn’t even have a plan when he first followed the two girls out of the Internet café, but somehow he managed to get his way into a fansign, and is about to meet his other self, and now Woohyun’s stuck as to how to proceed.

He can’t just tell him everything here, _right_? Besides the fact that the guy will think he’s batshit crazy, Woohyun doesn’t think he’ll get much time to even say hi at the fansign, let alone anything else. And how does one even begin to explain this situation? _Oh hey, look, I’m you, but from a different parallel universe. Oh, proof that I’m not a lunatic? How about the fact that we look really really alike? Like this nose here? Yup, not plastic. See, it can bend! And like I’m sure no one but us will know about that mole we have_ there _, unless they’re lovers and…_

Well, okay, no, that’s not going to work.

Looking at the queue of girls in the first row waiting for the idols to appear so they can get their autographs and shake hands (or whatever people do at fansigns), Woohyun thinks maybe the best way is to write a note to pass to the other Woohyun when it’s his turn to go up to meet INFINITE. He doesn’t have paper, nor a pen, but Woohyun manages to get some from a girl seated a row above him, and he quickly writes what he needs to. He’s about to return the pen, when he stares at the end of the note, and scribbles down his phone number, just in case. He hopes his number works in this universe, like that mysterious chicken restaurant’s, but even if it doesn’t, maybe it’ll give his incredulous message some modicum of credibility.

When he returns the pen, the lights on stage go on, and seven guys walk out. INFINITE. It isn’t difficult to spot Woohyun (the other one), and Woohyun supposes he shouldn’t be surprised that this Woohyun is probably as tall (as short) as he is. Figures. After stifling his snort, and letting his eyes roam over the other members – which, now that he’s looking closer, _doesn’t that look like – no, but the name on his nametag isn’t right_ – Woohyun folds his note carefully.

Now he just has to wait to meet the other Woohyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Sunggyu's a fanboy (in the non-idol world), Yeolna/Sungyeol is a fangirl, and Woohyun is a fake fanboy. What else can happen? Hmm...
> 
> And I'm pretty sure you guys already know who's Yeolna, but here's [the photo](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CplQTSpUAAEyYLt.jpg:large) of Sungyeol in the bun hairstyle I was referring to when I wrote this chapter if you want visual reference ;)
> 
> Also, I've never actually been to a fansign so this is what I gathered from reading stuff online. If there's any inaccuracies, feel free to let me know. Don't take the portrayal of the fans here too seriously lol.


	3. idol!WOOHYUN

_ idol!WOOHYUN _

It’s just another fansign out of the many he does with INFINITE, but as Woohyun signs off albums and shakes hands with (cute) female fans, he notices that there’s a guy standing in the queue. Not only that, but this male fan looks uncannily like him. When the fan in front of him starts talking, Woohyun leans over to smile and listens attentively, but once she leaves, Woohyun steals another glance at the guy in the queue.

 _He_ really _looks like me..._

There was one time during pre-recording for a music show when Woohyun pretended to be a fan of himself, sitting in the audience area and holding a “Woohyun-oppa is the best!” placard, cheering for “Woohyun-oppa” and everything. He remembers how the fans and crew alike had laughed about it, how it makes total sense that if he’s a fan that he’ll be a fan of himself, and he had laughed along, happy to make them smile with the joke. But that was then, and this is now, and to see someone who looks so much like him walking towards their fansign table tentatively (and isn’t it always the tentative ones who are the craziest fans?) scares him a bit. Beside him, Hoya shifts a little, and on his other side, Sunggyu takes a drink of water, which Woohyun thinks _he_ needs.

Alas, there isn’t enough time for him to find a bottle of water, and the male fan is in front of him before he knows it. Woohyun’s bracing himself for what the fan might say (or do), but the guy just places a neatly folded piece on paper on the table, bows, and then moves on to Hoya who’s next to him.

_Huh._

He thought the fan would at least say something, but Woohyun’s attention is diverted when the next fan in line comes up in front of him and he doesn’t have time to wonder. He does, however, sneak a glance towards Hoya’s side of the table while he writes a message for the female fan (a cute but way too young middle-schooler). And he spots Hoya looking at the male fan, blinking like he’s surprised. Woohyun has time to think, _What did the male fan do?_ before he quickly looks away. It’s not his business, Woohyun thinks, but Sunggyu nudges him at the elbow somewhat urgently, pointing for Woohyun to _look_. He’s not sure why he even follows, but Woohyun pauses in his writing and turns to observe the male fan and Hoya properly.

Usually it’s the fans giving them things – albums to sign, gifts and handwritten letters to keep – but the male fan doesn’t have anything on him (he doesn’t even have a bag, actually). And although Hoya is scribbling something on a piece of paper, Woohyun thinks it’s one the blank ones they’re provided with at all fansigns that no one ever really uses, instead of anything that the fan had brought. Strange, because since when does a fan come so unprepared? Also, from where he’s sitting, Woohyun catches glimpses of what Hoya’s writing and while he can’t see the whole paper, it’s enough to tell that that the words on the paper aren’t Hoya’s usual message to fans but a string of digits.

Wait…isn’t that… his _phone_ number?

Woohyun’s still looking when Hoya folds the paper into a haphazard rectangle and pushes it at the male fan’s hand. The guy seems surprised, but he takes the paper dazedly when the staff asks them to move along. At the reminder to move the fansign along, Woohyun quickly turns back to the middle-schooler fan who’s still in front of him, finishing his message on her CD.

“Here you go!”

 

 

With his busy and tiring schedule, Woohyun quickly forgets about the strange things that happened at the fansign. It’s only later, alone in his apartment at night, when Woohyun’s taking off his clothes to change into something more comfortable does he find the folded note in his pocket, and he suddenly recalls _who_ had given this to him. It’s the male fan – the one who looks like him, the one who didn’t say a single word at the fansign. There’s no harm in opening the note, so Woohyun unfolds it as he dumps his worn clothes in the laundry basket, curious.

 

 

_Okay, this is wacky as hell and you probably think I’m crazy but I’m going to just say it anyway. I’m you, from another dimension. Maybe you don’t believe me and stopped reading already but there’s something I need to talk to you about, so that I can return to my own world. Please, if you are willing to meet me, I’ll be waiting._

 

 

The rest of the note is the name of a park, and what Woohyun presumes is the fan’s phone number. He holds the note tentatively between the tips of his fingers, wondering how much he believes of the (frankly ridiculous) message.

“ _I’m you”. Right... oh-kayyyyy, sure._

Still, he can’t deny that he’s kind of curious. And Woohyun’s also vaguely wondering why the guy didn’t write down _when_ he’ll be at the park – is he going to just wait there until Woohyun turns up? _Isn’t that kind of even more ridiculous than the note itself? Surely the guy has things to do, work or school to attend...right?_  Or maybe he expects Woohyun to call him, but Woohyun isn’t dumb enough to call the guy’s number in case he spreads Woohyun’s personal number around. He already gets enough calls from overenthusiastic fans as it is.

Staring at the note, Woohyun considers that this whole thing could just be a bad joke from a crazed fan, especially after the discussion during lunch with the members after the fansign. They had all noticed how much the male fan looks like Woohyun, and coupled with rumors and speculations (from the other fans and some staff) of the male fan having done extensive plastic surgery to look like that (look like him), the members ended up having a long discussion about whether that’s supposed to be flattering or downright creepy. Myungsoo thought it might be somewhat flattering, if creepy, while Sunggyu, Sungjong, Dongwoo voted for just plain creepy. Sungyeol thought it was just hilarious that someone even likes Woohyun so much, while Hoya strangely didn’t say much even though he’s usually one of the more opinionated ones.

Woohyun hadn’t joined in that discussion, but somehow he doesn’t think the guy’s uncanny resemblance to him is so easily explained away by the miracles of cosmetic surgery. And that gut feeling only got stronger after reading the note. He still thinks the whole thing is pretty darn ridiculous, but there’s also something _else_ , if he’s listening to his instincts. That gut feeling is how, against his better judgement, Woohyun finds himself changing into jeans and pulling on a hoodie, ready to head to the park at one in the morning.

 

 

As Woohyun cruises around the park, trying to spot the male fan from the safety of his car with its black tinted windows, he wonders if he should even expect to find the guy at 1.30am. He’s about to give up after he loops around the park’s perimeter, but then he spots a guy in a white long-sleeve and faded jeans sitting at a bench.

 _So he’s actually waiting_ , Woohyun thinks, and before he knows it, he has parked his car and is heading over to the guy.

He’s not sure what he’s doing, and Woohyun considers that maybe he shouldn’t even be here, especially without at least telling someone where he went. Maybe he should text Sunggyu or Hoya _now_. But before he gets a chance to, the male fan looks up, probably alerted by Woohyun’s quiet but still audible footsteps.

“Oh. Hey. I didn’t think you’ll actually turn up, actually,” the guy says, like he’s torn between being thankful and being sheepish. Woohyun isn’t sure what kind of reaction he had been expecting, but _that_ isn’t it. (It only makes what he wrote in the note more _plausible_ , right? Fans don’t usually react like this.)

Woohyun pulls the bill of the baseball cap he’s wearing further down, and mumbles honestly, “I didn’t think you’ll actually be here.”

There’s silence, then the guy laughs. “So… you drove here because you _didn’t_ think I’ll be here?”

Put that way, his actions sound _ridiculous_. Woohyun huffs, “…I could just leave now, you know.”

The guy reaches out, almost like he wants to grab Woohyun, but clearly thinks better of it and puts his hands back down again. Woohyun frowns but doesn’t move back, since the guy hadn’t technically crossed any boundaries. The guy looks up at him properly, neck tilting up so he’s looking at Woohyun in the eyes instead of just a random point on his body. At this angle, the light from the nearby street lamp illuminates his whole face clearly.

_He really, really looks like me. He even has a small mole above his upper lip, and that’s something usually covered up with makeup during promotions…_

Woohyun’s still observing all the little details on the guy’s face and how he really looks pretty much exactly like him when he’s without makeup, when he hears the guy say softly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m just really… I really want to get home to my own world, but I think I need your help.”

Blinking at the almost desperate tone of the guy’s voice, Woohyun tilts his head quizzically, and the guy continues, “You read what I wrote on the note right?”

“Mhmm.”

“I… I’m Nam Woohyun. I’m not from this universe, this world; I’m from a parallel one. And I think I’m here because I said something stupid yesterday. I need to do something about it, something which I need your help with, so that I can return to my own world.”

 

 

When the guy – who calls himself _Woohyun_ although Woohyun doesn’t want to use that name on him at the moment, because it’s _his_ name too – finishes explaining that he woke up yesterday and found himself in a different universe where there’s alternate versions of himself as well as people and places he knows, it’s already two in the morning. Woohyun stretches, and covers his mouth when a yawn escapes.

“…Do you believe me?” the guy, the _other_ Woohyun, asks.

“I don’t know,” Woohyun replies frankly, and he really doesn’t. There’s the part about the other Woohyun being an alternate universe’s version of him, and there’s also the part where he just mysteriously woke up in this world with no explanation. Then there’s the bit about how he had argued with his boyfriend (and maybe Woohyun’s slightly surprised that his other self isn’t straight, but maybe he isn’t entirely surprised because he has always sort of known that he isn’t as straight as he would like to be although he has long since learnt to bury those feelings deep inside). And then there’s the bit about the other Woohyun just dumbly shouting something lame like “If only I can date myself”, which the other Woohyun thinks is the reason why he’s stuck in this world.

There’s so many things that are ridiculous about this, and Woohyun shouldn’t believe it, any of it, but the guy sitting in front of him is sincere and just a little desperate enough that he thinks he’s telling the truth, although Woohyun still finds it hard to believe.

“So, let me get this straight. You want my help because you think you need to date yourself – me, whatever – in order to fulfill whatever it is that brought you to this universe. And you think once that date happens, you can go back home?”

The other Woohyun looks at him with puppy eyes – _gosh, do I look like that too whenever I try to pout my way out of responsibilities?_ – and nods. After a beat, he drops the puppy eyes, and sighs a little too seriously, “At least, I hope so. I don’t have any other guesses as to how I can get back.”

Woohyun looks at the other guy in front of him, and how his head is bowed and is back slumped. Without meaning to, he finds his heart going out for the guy. He’s not heartless, far from it (even Dongwoo, who’s the nicest guy in INFINITE calls him a bleeding heart when Woohyun thinks Dongwoo’s the real softie) but he’s realistic and logical when he needs to be. And there’s technically nothing very realistic or logical about the other Woohyun’s story. Still, he doesn’t think the guy is lying, for some reason, even if he’s not a hundred percent sure about that. He hasn’t known this guy for long and he shouldn’t trust what he says, but the other Woohyun does look almost exactly like him to the point that everything he had said sounds believable, if very ridiculous. Then again, maybe it’s so ridiculous that he couldn’t have made it up, and surely the guy’s not faking the dejection his posture’s suggests. (Woohyun’s pretty good at reading people, so unless the guy is a very _very_ good actor… _nah, he’s probably not.)_

Woohyun quietly reaches a hand out to pat the other guy’s shoulder, the first bodily contact they’ve made, but the other Woohyun doesn’t shun it. If anything, he leans in ever so slightly into the touch, seemingly comforted although his posture is still one of defeat. There’s a small sniffle followed by a sigh, and Woohyun hopes he’s not crying. Shifting his hand from the other Woohyun’s shoulder to his cheek, Woohyun gently tilts the guy’s face up. There’s a little wetness in his eyes, but he’s clearly holding his tears in. Without realizing, Woohyun’s leaning in towards the other Woohyun.

“Don’t cry. I’ll help you,” he says softly.

The other Woohyun’s eyes turn shiny with hope this time, and Woohyun finds it so endearing that before he registers what he’s doing, he’s closing the little distance between them and pressing his lips to the other’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've not seen the video where Woohyun pretends (?) to be a fan of himself, I strongly encourage you to watch it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdPmkZhTFfs). It's hilarious and it's also what prompted me to write this whole fic, haha.
> 
> Also, the mole Woohyun has above his upper lip: [1](https://www.instagram.com/p/BNWuSIJATms/?taken-by=nwh91), [2](https://www.instagram.com/p/BDuR9Aqs3sB/).


	4. Notidol!WOOHYUN

_ Notidol!WOOHYUN _

To say he’s surprised by the kiss is an understatement. Woohyun’s not sure how they got from barely strangers to talking, and then now, _this_. The other Woohyun (idol Woohyun) puts just the slightest pressure against his lips, and Woohyun feels his eyelids slowly flutter close. But then they immediately fly open again, because –

“ _What_ are you doing?”

Idol Woohyun holds his hands up, like he didn’t do anything, and Woohyun narrows his eyes at him.

“Dude, you didn’t protest so…” idol Woohyun mumbles, and Woohyun raises an eyebrow. Like sure, he’s the one who (accidentally) said he’ll date himself, but this isn’t what he meant. He wanted someone who could understand him, someone he’s familiar with and can read well, and to be honest, kissing and other stuff weren’t even on his mind when he had said that statement that caused him all this trouble to begin with. He glares at idol Woohyun, who’s giving him puppy eyes, and wonders if the guy’s more sexually frustrated than he thought if he’s willing to kiss another version of himself so easily (unless idol Woohyun doesn’t believe Woohyun at all, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, Woohyun thinks). He remembers Sunggyu-hyung telling him a lot about idols and their many restrictions and rules so he supposes the sexual frustration is to be expected but still –

“Isn’t it _weird_?” Woohyun drags out the last word, hesitant to touch his lips. He kind of wants to rub it off – the saliva and what feels like chapstick or lip balm from idol Woohyun’s lips – but he doesn’t want the other to get the wrong idea. Especially not now, when he’s pretty sure idol Woohyun is sexually frustrated and all.

Idol Woohyun blinks slowly, like he’s thinking over what to reply, and Woohyun looks away a little when he sees the other’s tongue peek out slightly as he licks his lips while concentrating. _Great, what am I doing? Why am I noticing that?_

After a while, idol Woohyun clears his throat, then grins cheekily like he hadn’t just been giving puppy eyes earlier. “Well… don’t tell me you’ve never at least _thought_ about it. You know, what it’ll be like to kiss yourself. And also, weren’t you the one who wanted to date yourself?”

Woohyun definitely doesn’t blush (nope, he doesn’t!), but his hands reach up to cover his warm cheeks anyway. “Yah! What the heck is going on in your head?”

 

 

After things settle down a little, with idol Woohyun promising he won’t do anything like that again _(“Not unless you want me to~”_ which only earned him a smack from Woohyun), Woohyun takes in what the other just agreed to. Idol Woohyun had basically said he’ll help him, which means he might have a chance to go back to his own world, but he needs to be clear on what “help” constitutes exactly.

“Eh,” idol Woohyun runs his hand through his hair, “You said you need to _date_ yourself right? So what do you usually do on your dates?”

Woohyun thinks about the dates he’s been on, the ones he always have with his boyfriend, and tries to ignore the aching in his heart at the thought of him ( _I’ll be back with you, soon, I hope)._ “Eat a meal, watch a movie, walk at a park at night, something like that, I guess? Though not all of them at once.”

Idol Woohyun looks at him funnily, like he doesn’t quite believe what he’s hearing, and Woohyun’s about to defend himself (not everyone can afford fancy dates okay!) when the guy says, “That’s nice. I wish I can do that.”

Woohyun blinks. “What do you mean? You _can’t_ do that?”

“No,” idol Woohyun sighs, although he covers it up with a smile. “Idols can’t get into scandals so any dating, if we even have time to do that after our insane schedules, is done in secret. Spending an hour or two in either party’s house is probably the extent of it.”

Oh. That sounds terrible, Woohyun considers, but he doesn’t think the other needs his sympathy. He probably hears it enough from other people. Still, it raises a question he’s been wondering. “If you can’t do that, how am I supposed to date you?”

Idol Woohyun raises an eyebrow at him, grinning, and Woohyun is about to say, “Not _that_. Stop thinking about sex, seriously.” when he answers, “Would this count as a date?”

“Hmm?” Woohyun pauses. “I guess? I mean, technically we just talked, mostly. But hey, we’re at a park. That counts as something right? But I mean –“

As if reading his mind, idol Woohyun continues, “It’ll be nice if we can do some stupid cliché thing like hold hands and walk down the streets or something, right?”

Woohyun would laugh if he wasn’t also thinking of the same thing (well, he hadn’t quite phrased it as a “stupid cliché thing” in his own head but it’s close enough), and it’s uncanny how something as simple as this can be such a prominent reminder that they are in fact, two of the same _person,_ even if they live in different universes. He clears his throat awkwardly, then says, “Well, since you can’t be seen moving around in case you get into a scandal, maybe we can just take a short stroll near the pond in the park? It’s pretty shaded there and the trees are quite dense. No one should see us at this time of the night.”

Idol Woohyun nods too easily, and Woohyun isn’t even surprised when he feels the other’s fingers slowly slip between his.

 

 

“…Woohyun, can you stop grinning so hard? We’re just holding hands.”

“I hold my members’ hands all the time.”

“…I hope you don’t grin at them like this when you do…”

“Of course I do! It’s fanservice.”

“… _right_. Never mind. Let’s just go.”

 

 

The stroll around the park is nice enough, the air a little chilly but Woohyun doesn’t mind. Idol Woohyun doesn’t actually say anything much once they reach the pond, although he had asked a bunch of questions on the way there. Mostly he had wanted to know what Woohyun does back home (he’s a soccer coach for middle-school boys), how his boyfriend is doing ( _well_ , Woohyun hopes), whether he has a family back home (yes) and how they are (healthy and well the last Woohyun saw them) and other little things like that. Idol Woohyun doesn’t ask things that are too personal, and Woohyun’s glad because he’s not sure how much to share – partly because they’re still not _that_ close yet, but also partly because he’s not sure whether the information he shares about his world might end up changing something in this parallel universe that he’s not supposed to (didn’t the comics always warn about that leading to potential disaster?).

The questions peter down as they reach the pond, and after a while the two of them simply walk with their hands clasped in companionable silence. Walking hand in hand like this, Woohyun can’t help but think that if he just closes his eyes and imagines, it’ll be his boyfriend beside him instead. When he opens his eyes, it’s still the other Woohyun’s hand he’s holding, but he hadn’t really been expecting to be back in his own world so easily. Still, Woohyun doesn’t feel _too_ bad. If anything, he actually feels vaguely comforted with the other’s hand interlaced with his.

He thinks two rounds around the pond is enough, and idol Woohyun is yawning again so he stops in his steps.

“I think that should be enough, you probably need to go back and sleep already,” Woohyun says.

He’s about to thank the other for what he hopes constitutes a date and go off (maybe sleep at the bench again, hoping he’ll be back in own bed in his own world when he wakes up), but idol Woohyun stifles a yawn and mumbles, “Do you have anywhere to go? To sleep I mean. You did wake up at the park yesterday and all.”

He doesn’t, which he tells the other Woohyun.

“Do you want to come to my apartment then?” Woohyun thinks he must have made a face because idol Woohyun laughs, then adds, “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything. And I live alone so there’s space in the house. You can take the sofa, which I’m sure is more comfortable than the park bench.”

He’s about to refuse – because he _should_ be back in his own world tomorrow, right? – but Woohyun hears himself say, “Hmm, if it’s not too much trouble… I’ll love to. I want a shower more than I want a soft bed though, to be honest.”

Idol Woohyun’s laugh is almost the same as his own, but somehow brighter, and Woohyun finds himself laughing along with it.

 

 

The shower is nice and warm, and Woohyun even gets a change of clothes courtesy of idol Woohyun.

“Thanks for lending me your clothes,” he starts, but the other Woohyun just rolls his eyes.

“You don’t need to be so courteous. I know you – we – hate being so polite although we are used to it.”

Woohyun blinks a few times, and then –

“Dude, I’m honestly thanking you. You did more than I expected by helping me with the date, and now this. I’m not just being polite.”

There’s a short silence, then idol Woohyun mumbles with his back turned as he’s heading into his bedroom, “I know. I just… I _know_.”

“Oh. _Ohh_. Okay.” Woohyun peeks at the other’s ears which are slightly flushed, and he thinks maybe he should just go lie down and the sofa before he embarrasses himself and the other Woohyun more. “Well then, goodnight. I hope I don’t see you tomorrow.”

Idol Woohyun pauses in closing his bedroom door. “Yah! Already wanting me gone after I’ve been so nice to you?” The words are cold but the other Woohyun’s tone is joking, and Woohyun chuckles.

“ _Of course_. I just want to go back to my own world.”

A light hum of agreement comes from idol Woohyun’s direction, although by the time Woohyun looks up, the bedroom door is already closed.

 

 

The first thing he thinks about the moment he’s awake is this: _Am I back in my own bed?_

The softness under his back gives him hope, but Woohyun doesn’t open his eyes yet, unsure if he’s really back in his own bed or lying on idol Woohyun’s sofa. He doesn’t get the time to slowly consider because there’s suddenly a finger poking him on his side, and Woohyun peels his eyelids open.

“What?”

For a moment he thinks he’s back home, but then the face in front of him isn’t the one he’s familiar with, and before Woohyun has time to wonder why Hoya, one of the idols from INFINITE, is in the other Woohyun’s apartment, the bedroom door opens and idol Woohyun walks out.

If this was a movie, the camera would shift to slow motion as Hoya turns around to see the other Woohyun with a toothbrush in his mouth, and there would be a close up of the confusion in his eyes as his head whips around to stare at Woohyun who’s still lying on the sofa. But this isn’t a movie, so Woohyun just watch Hoya turn his head multiple times at almost neck-breaking speed, alternating between him and the other Woohyun.

He’s not too surprised at what happens next.

“What… Why are there _two_ of you?”


	5. HOYA

_ HOYA _

He hadn’t believed his eyes at first, but eventually Hoya manages to gather himself enough to say, “What… Why are there two of you?”

The Woohyun standing by the bedroom takes his toothbrush out of his mouth and mumbles something Hoya doesn’t catch. On the other side, still on the sofa, the other Woohyun just laughs nervously.

“Well?” Hoya prompts again, and this time, the Woohyun who still has toothpaste in his mouth mumbles something that sounds like, “Ugh, it’s too early for this.”

 

 

For a while, Hoya sits at the sofa and waits for the Woohyun brushing his teeth to finish washing up. The Woohyun on the sofa doesn’t say anything, just sneaks glances at him when he thinks Hoya isn’t looking, although it’s not like Hoya isn’t doing the same thing, so he doesn’t comment. Now that he’s gotten over the initial surprise that there’re two people who look like Woohyun in the apartment, Hoya’s starting to put two and two together.

He glances at the Woohyun sitting on the far end of the sofa again. _Wasn’t there a fan who looks a lot like Woohyun yesterday at the fansign?_ This is probably that fan, Hoya surmises. He hadn’t had time to scrutinize the fan too closely during the fansign yesterday, but now that he’s looking closer, he can see how the likeness isn’t something cosmetic surgery can reproduce, which was the leading theory (rumor) the fans, staff and the rest of INFINITE had come up with.

The guy looks almost _exactly_ like Woohyun – the Woohyun he knows – except that his eyebrows aren’t as neatly groomed and he is a little tanner than the Woohyun he remembers. His nose doesn’t look plastic, scrunching a little when he frowns, and when he grimaces, there are the little lines around his mouth and the tiny dimples that surely, surely couldn’t have been achieved with plastic surgery. Lying against the sofa with an ease he doesn’t actually feel, Hoya wonders what’s going on, trying not to think about the fact that he had given this guy who looks like Woohyun his phone number yesterday at the fansign. _What was he even thinking back then?_

Oh yeah, he wasn’t. Not with his head, at least.

Hoya’s saved from any further thoughts on the matter when Woohyun appears from the bedroom, dressed and freshly washed up. He’s pretty sure this is the Woohyun he knows, the one he had trained with and performed with for years, because this Woohyun gives him a _look_.

“Why did you come to my apartment, Howon?” Woohyun asks, addressing him with his real name instead of his stage one, and Hoya frowns.

“You told me to come before your schedules so I can borrow that CD…?”

“Oh right. I forgot,” Woohyun replies sheepishly as he takes a seat on the sofa, making no move to go back to his room to search for said CD. Hoya’s about to ask why, when Woohyun continues, “Uh, since you’re here already, and you’ve seen …him, maybe I should tell you what’s going on…?”

There’s a questioning tone in the sentence, but Hoya figures it’s not for him. The fan (?) sitting at the end of the sofa nods slightly, and Woohyun continues.

“Right. So. This is Woohyun,” he says, gesturing to the fan, and Hoya blinks.

 

 

By the time Woohyun – the one he knows, not the other one – finishes explaining that they’re both Woohyun although the one sitting at the far end of the sofa is a Woohyun from a different, parallel dimension and Woohyun (the one he doesn’t know) is here because Woohyun (the one he knows) is trying to help him find a way back, Hoya thinks he gets the gist of it, though he’s still not entirely sure what’s going on, or if he believes everything.

“So… you’re like, _him_ , but from a parallel universe,” Hoya confirms, and Woohyun – the one that’s a stranger – nods. After he lets that sink in for a bit, Hoya nods a few times. He’s about to ask something else, but then Woohyun – the one he knows – suddenly stands up, cursing.

“Shit, I’m late already. I have schedules that I need to rush to, so uh, Woohyun, you can stay here if you want, just don’t go out. And Hoya, you can find the CD in my room if you want it urgently, if not I’ll get it for you tonight or something.”

With that said, Woohyun zips out of the apartment, leaving Hoya with the other Woohyun, who’s still looking at him somewhat nervously. To say the air is awkward would be a huge understatement, and the loud click of the door locking as Woohyun goes off sounds a lot graver than it should.

 

 

“Uh… so, you’re really Woohyun, right?” The moment the question is out of his mouth, Hoya thinks he probably shouldn’t have asked, because he had obviously asked something similar earlier. (The other) Woohyun doesn’t comment on it though, just nods.

“Yeah.”

“So, you’re like him, but… _not_.” He didn’t mean to ask it again, but evidently Hoya’s brain is still taking its own sweet time to get behind the facts even though he has already asked variations of the same question multiple times.

“Yeah.”

After a pause, wondering if this Woohyun will ever say anything that isn’t one-word answers (the Woohyun he knows can’t keep his mouth shut, so he’s not sure why this Woohyun is so reticent), Hoya mumbles, “It’s… weird.”

Woohyun finally looks at him, eyebrows furrowing slightly, but there’s almost a hint of a smile on his lips. “Tell me about it,” he says drily, which sounds way too much like the Woohyun he knows, and Hoya suddenly laughs.

When the laughter dies down awkwardly (Woohyun didn’t really laugh along, just peers at him curiously, which made Hoya feel uncomfortable), there’s yet another long silence. Hoya doesn’t know why he suddenly decides to say what he does, but he blames it on the tension in the air, and his brain short-circuiting from the new information.

“I love you.”

_Ugh, what did you just do, Lee Howon?_ Hoya’s hiding his face but he catches the other Woohyun’s confused expression. “Oh god, I wasn’t supposed to say that,” Hoya mumbles, hoping the other Woohyun will pretend he didn’t hear, but then –

“You like _him_?” Woohyun asks, leaning forward slightly like he’s actually interested in the conversation instead of just uncomfortable like he had been the whole time, and it makes Hoya lower his hands from his face a little.

“Uh…maybe?” Hoya whispers, hating how shy he sounds, but he _is_ talking to someone who looks a lot like Woohyun (okay, _is_ Woohyun, but not the same Woohyun he knows) and somehow that feels almost like he’s telling the real Woohyun his feelings. ( _Well, he’s not saying this Woohyun is fake, but you get the point…_ )

Hoya is still busy with his inner turmoil so he doesn’t immediately notice that the Woohyun in front of him has narrowed his eyes and is staring intently at him, until the guy says, “Hmm... Since dating myself didn’t work –“

“Maybe you didn’t date hard enough?” Hoya interjects jokingly, more to dispel the strange feeling he’s getting with Woohyun staring at him more than anything, but Woohyun just rolls his eyes.

“What’s that supposed to _mean_? And if you say something like, maybe you guys should have had sex with each other or something, I’m going to hit you, because _eww, no_ ,” Woohyun huffs and shudders a little. It’s kind of cute, but Hoya needs to get the image of two Woohyuns together like _that_ out of his mind. That’s not what he should be thinking about right now.

In front of him, Woohyun continues his original point from before, thankfully unaware of Hoya’s inappropriate thoughts. “So, I was saying, since dating myself didn’t work to get me back to my world, maybe it has to do with you.”

Hoya pauses in his mental fantasies to tilt his head. “What? _Me_?”

Woohyun nods. “Yeah, you. Like, did you wish for something before yesterday? Or was that two days ago…? Either way, did you wish for anything?”

He doesn’t get what Woohyun’s point is, and Hoya raises an eyebrow. “Like what?” What could he have possible wished for that could have gotten this Woohyun to their universe? But then he suddenly _remembers_. “Oh yeah. Shit. Maybe I did.”

“Well?”

Hoya never knew so much enthusiasm can be put into one word, and Woohyun sounds a little too hopeful and eager when he adds, “What did you wish for?”

Hoya’s answer is probably not what he’s looking for, but he answers truthfully anyway, even though he feels his ears getting warm. “Uh... I might have said something like I want to have Woohyun to myself with no strings attached, even if it’s just for a day.” His voice gets softer with each word, but Woohyun clearly hears him, because he looks at him oddly.

There’s another awkward silence, and then Woohyun grounds out, “ _Okayyy_...I’m not going to judge you. But don’t look at _me_ like that. I’m already attached.”

Hoya blinks innocently. “What? I wasn’t thinking of anything.” _Right, of course_ he hadn’t, and _of course_ it hadn’t meant anything when he had given this Woohyun his phone number at the fansign yesterday just because the guy looks like the Woohyun he knows. _Of course_.

Ugh, stupid _stupid_.

Woohyun still seems ever so oblivious to Hoya’s inner turmoil, eyes staring elsewhere as he casually brings a hand up to rest his chin on, speaking like he’s thinking aloud rather than actually talking to Hoya, “Huh, okay. I guess idols are _really_ a lot more sexually frustrated than Sunggyu-hyung said –”

“Wait,” Hoya interrupts, “Sunggyu-hyung? You know our leader?”

“No…? I have a friend back home called Sunggyu,” Woohyun answers and Hoya’s brain makes the connection.

“Oh, right, of course. Well, that’ll make sense, since we’re in parallel universes and all.”

 

 

They quickly run out of things to say after that. Hoya doesn’t know why he’s still in the apartment. It’s his rest day, and he could be doing so many other things instead of sitting around Woohyun’s apartment talking to the other Woohyun. Or more like _not_ talking, which is closer to what they’re doing now, (the other) Woohyun flipping through channels on the television trying to find something interesting to watch. Hoya just shifts on the sofa, wondering if he should cook or order takeout or _something_ since it’s lunchtime already.

He’s flipping through the delivery fliers on Woohyun’s fridge when (the other) Woohyun comes up behind him. He’ll be lying if he says he doesn’t feel the heat of (the other) Woohyun’s chest radiating warmth on his back across the narrow buffer of air between them, but all Hoya says is, “Jjajangmyeon or jjampong?”

Woohyun leans in to look at the menu on the delivery flier, and his chin rests on Hoya’s shoulder in a way that feels strangely familiar, even though he’s only done this with Woohyun – the one he knows – and not this Woohyun before. Hoya’s waiting for an answer but there’s only breathing sounds from the warmth that’s (the other) Woohyun by his ear, so he turns slightly to give him a raised eyebrow. But that turns out to have the wrong effect, because (the other) Woohyun is so close to him, and he sees something cross (the other) Woohyun’s face. Before either of them says anything, they’ve both leaned in a little and the next thing Hoya knows, their lips are touching, then tentatively moving against each other’s. It ends as quickly as it had started, but Hoya’s pretty sure he’s still blushing a little anyway.

“Okay, no, that was weird,” Woohyun speaks first, breaking the silence that had fallen, and Hoya’s glad the awkward atmosphere dissipates a little.

“Yeah, it was,” Hoya agrees as he wipes his lips, and he doesn’t miss the smile ruining the look of faked hurt on this Woohyun’s face (he knows Woohyun – the one in INFINITE – really well, and it helps him read this Woohyun as well). “Well, at least it cleared up something.”

“Cleared up what?” Woohyun’s eager tone is back, and Hoya chuckles a little.

“I only like _that_ Woohyun.”

There’s a playful shove on his shoulder, and Hoya pushes back at (this) Woohyun as well, which turns into a tiny scruffle that’s more pushing at each other than anything violent. When they finally stop, Woohyun smiles.

“Well, glad to know that I’m repulsive to you too.”

Hoya’s about to laugh, but he catches onto one word. “…too? _Too_?”

It starts another round of light hustling, and ends with them both laughing, slumped on the kitchen floor a little out of breath.

They stay like this in comfortable silence for a while, until Woohyun decides to say, “Maybe you should tell him.”

It’s stated quietly and simply without any pressure, so instead of reacting to it as he normally would (like all the times Sunggyu had tried to tell him the same thing), Hoya just sighs tiredly. “I don’t know. It’ll ruin everything. Our careers, our team…”

Woohyun takes a while to reply, but eventually he says, “Well, I don’t know. I can’t tell you how to live your life. But you know, if for some reason you end up like me, stuck somewhere in a different world where you don’t know how to get back… you’ll never see him again. You’ll never be able to tell him how you feel.”

Hoya doesn’t say anything, just let the weight of the words sink in. Woohyun doesn’t press, only turns a little to look at him as he adds quietly, “I really want to get back to my own world.” A pause, then in a slightly choked voice, “I really miss him.”

Hoya doesn’t need to ask to know Woohyun’s talking about the boyfriend he has back in his own world, and all it does is make Hoya think, shit.

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With Hoya’s sudden confession to the (wrong) Woohyun, the fic is getting updated with a wooya tag lol. If things seem to happen pretty suddenly/randomly, let it be known that 1) things will get clearer when we get to the end, and 2) this is a crackish fic so sometimes I just write in nonsense (ok, not complete nonsense but still). You can try and guess which is which in each case ;)
> 
> Also, the next chapter is the last chapter, but there’s an epilogue after that. I’ll love to hear what you guys think of the story so far!


	6. Notidol!WOOHYUN

_ Notidol!WOOHYUN _

Hoya stays silent on the floor for a long time, and Woohyun isn’t sure what else to say, so he keeps quiet. It’s only when his stomach rumbles does Woohyun remember that they had been meaning to order lunch before this happened. Hoya looks up at the sound, and he manages a small smile.

“Let’s call for delivery.”

 

 

Lunch consists of Woohyun trying to keep Hoya distracted from the heavy topic he brought up earlier by asking him about INFINITE. He’s learning more than he wants to know about idols and more specifically about the seven members of INFINITE, but Woohyun thinks it settles Hoya into a more comfortable mood, which was the main point of the conversation anyway. He almost forgets their talk by the fridge earlier until they’re clearing up the empty bowls of jjanjangmyeon and jjampong. Hoya’s dumping the trash into the bin and Woohyun’s wiping the table when Hoya suddenly says, “I think I should tell him.”

It takes Woohyun a while to gather that Hoya’s talking about telling the other Woohyun that he likes (loves?) him.

“Are you sure?” Woohyun asks, looking up from cleaning the table to observe the guy. Hoya’s posture is slightly slumped unlike his earlier more confident stance, but his eyes are determined when he eventually answers.

“Yeah.”

 

 

The first thing Hoya does is call the other Woohyun and asks if he’ll be back for dinner. It seems to be the case, because once he hangs up, Hoya starts opening the fridge and looking through the cupboards.

“What are you doing?” Woohyun asks.

“Finding things I can use to cook,” is Hoya’s reply.

Woohyun looks at him search, and he doesn’t even have to think before he asks, “Do you need my help?”

 

 

They spend most of the afternoon cooking, although Hoya has to run out to the supermarket to get some ingredients he couldn’t find in idol Woohyun’s house. Woohyun had wanted to go as well, help him choose the items or carry the bags, but then he remembered that he’s not supposed to go out of the house.

“It’ll be hard to explain why you’re seen around here when Woohyun’s filming something at the TV station,” Hoya had said, and Woohyun pouted (earning him a finger flick on the forehead from Hoya) but he stayed in the apartment.

Later after Hoya returns, they start cooking. Mostly Woohyun helps by preparing and chopping the ingredients, because he can tell Hoya wants to be the one to cook the dinner. He’s cutting radish into large chunks for the soup when he decides to ask, “So, are you going to confess to him after you two eat the dinner that you cook?” Woohyun doesn’t even have to ask to know that he shouldn’t be there at dinner later. ( _Maybe he should sneak out before idol Woohyun comes back._ )

“Yeah,” Hoya replies without looking up, and Woohyun catches a hint of hesitation in the answer as well as a slight embarrassment if the redness in his ears is anything to go by. He doesn’t tease the guy though, because he knows this is probably a big step (risk) Hoya is taking. All he does is give him a pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t think too much, I’m sure things will work out somehow.”

It’s probably just empty words to Hoya, Woohyun thinks, but maybe it needs to be said anyway.

 

 

Woohyun is about to sneak out before idol Woohyun returns, but Hoya stops him.

“Can you like… be here for moral support?”

“…You want me to be here when you confess to him?” Woohyun asks somewhat incredulously, and Hoya frowns at him.

“No, I mean. Like. Can you, I don’t know, stay in one of the rooms or something? Make sure I don’t chicken out of this. So if I don’t say anything, you can come out and knock some sense into my head… you know, that sort of thing.”

It sounds like the worst thing he can do, and Woohyun doesn’t really want to be here when the dinner is for just the two of them, but he doesn’t get to protest because just then, the beeps of someone keying in the passcode to the apartment sounds through the house.

“He’s back, quick, hide,” Hoya whispers, pushing Woohyun into the nearest room, which happens to be idol Woohyun’s bedroom. The door closes on him from the outside, and the next thing Woohyun hears is idol Woohyun’s voice.

“Hey, so what’s the occasion? I smell food. Wait, that looks home-cooked… Did you cook dinner? Wow –”

He feels like a creep listening to their conversation, so Woohyun quickly moves to the further end of the room, trying to distract himself by opening up idol Woohyun’s drawers. Maybe he can find some earphones and a music player to tune them out. He’s flipping through notebooks and stationery when he finds a bunch of photocards. Or more specifically, a bunch of Hoya photocards, which Woohyun presumes are from INFINITE albums (Sunggyu arranges all his idol photocards in a clear plastic folder, so Woohyun has seen enough to guess that these are the same kind). He puts them back into the drawer after he looks through all of them, but can’t help smiling a little.

 _Aish, this isn’t your business, Woohyun, don’t read too much into it_ , he chides himself as he closes the drawer, continuing his search for earphones (or even just ear plugs). He doesn’t find any though, not even after looking through the bookshelf and keyboard area, so Woohyun gives up and sits on the chair after a while. Laying his head on the table, Woohyun wonders how Hoya’s conversation (confession) is going. He perks up his ears to listen to the conversation outside, and it’s only then does he realize that it’s been quiet outside for a while. There’re no voices coming from across the door.

_…are they still talking? What happened?_

He doesn’t remember hearing anything loud or significant while searching idol Woohyun’s room earlier, so he doesn’t think anything bad could have happened, but Woohyun thinks he should probably take a look anyway. Maybe Hoya had indeed chickened out of confessing because wouldn’t the confession cause a bit of a reaction or ruckus? He’s pretty sure he didn’t hear any commotion. Woohyun pads his way quietly back to the door, then slowly twists the knob. Opening it just a little, he tries to see what’s going on in the dining area.

The food is still on the table, half eaten, but Hoya and the other Woohyun are nowhere in sight. Most of the lights are dimmed or switched off, probably Hoya’s attempt at making things romantic, but it just means Woohyun can’t really see where they are. He opens the door a crack wider so he can scan the mostly dark living room better, but it’s still hard to distinguish what is what, especially in a place he’s not too familiar with. Woohyun squints his eyes, trying to make out dark shapes against darker shapes and that’s when he hears what sounds like a low moan coming from the sofa. It’s mostly muffled but then a second one follows, and the second one is clear enough ( _needy_ enough) that Woohyun can’t mistake it for anything else.

Oh.

Woohyun quickly shuts the door. He doesn’t need to hear more of the low groans or quiet wet noises in the background to figure that Hoya’s confession probably went better than he expected. (Also, wow, idols sure are badly sexually frustrated.)

_Great._

Woohyun goes back to the further end of the room, away from the sounds although to be honest they’re not that audible once the door is closed.

_Okay, no, wait, take that back._

Someone’s noisy and _eager_ , and Woohyun doesn’t want to figure out who it is although he can tell from the voice.

_Ugh. Do I sound like that too? Gah, my ears... I so do not need to hear this._

Woohyun sighs, stuffing his ears with his fingers for now until he can find something better to block out the noise. If it’s any consolation to his suffering, at least things seemed to have turned out well, although Woohyun kind of wishes that he wasn’t here, only a door away from what’s going on in the living room.

_Good for you, Hoya. And you too, Woohyun. I bet you’re ecstatic to finally be getting some._

_…_

_Ugh. But how long do I have to hide inside here until they’re done?_

His stomach rumbles a little just then, and Woohyun sighs again. Still, it’s not like he can go out and eat when the two of them are doing who-knows-what on the sofa outside, so Woohyun settles for lying on idol Woohyun’s huge king-sized bed with the pillow covering his ears, hoping he’ll fall asleep before he gets hungrier.

 

 

He doesn’t notice when he falls asleep, but he must have, because the next thing he knows, there’s an alarm ringing in his ears.

“Ugh,” Woohyun grumbles, slapping a hand around and the alarm finally stops. _Good. Now I can go back to sleep_ , he thinks, but he suddenly realizes.

 _That was… that was my_ own _alarm._

His eyelids fly open.

The bed underneath him is a queen, not the king-sized one he had fallen asleep on yesterday, and there are soccer trophies and medals on the shelf in front of him.

_I… I’m back!_

Woohyun pinches himself just to be sure, and it hurts because he used too much strength, but he doesn’t care. Switching on his computer, he quickly googles for today’s date. Two full days have passed while he was in the parallel universe, but Woohyun’s relieved to find that it’s only the day after he had argued with his boyfriend here.

It’s barely eight in the morning, but Woohyun doesn’t care, picking up his phone and dialing the first number on his favourites list.

“Hey. I know it’s still early and you’re probably not up yet, but I’m so sorry about yesterday. Can we meet and talk?”

 

 

The café is barely open for business when Woohyun gets there, but there’s already someone seated at a table.

“I missed you,” is the first thing Woohyun says, because he _needs_ to, even though he remembers that they had just argued the night before (the night before in _this_ world, but three nights ago for him).

He doesn’t expect anything but his boyfriend’s usual silence to such words of affection, especially in public, but there’s a rough clearing of throat, and then a voice softly saying –

“I-I missed you too.”

He thinks he might be dreaming this whole thing up but the man underneath his palms is solid when he touches him, and Woohyun suddenly feels overwhelmed with too many emotions. Happiness. Relief. Surprise. Joy. Gratefulness.

“Are you okay? Why are you… are you crying?”

Woohyun wipes at the wetness on his face, but he can’t say anything past the lump in his throat, still grateful that he’s back here in his own world, and happy that he had gotten a “I missed you” back and –

“I’m sorry, did the fight yesterday… Is it because of that? I… You know I’m not very good with words.” His boyfriend’s voice is soft against his hair but the pair of arms coming around his waist to hold him are strong, and Woohyun lets himself sink into the touch.

“It’s not about that. I-I… I have so much to tell you,” Woohyun eventually manages to say after his crying subsides. There’s no verbal reply, but he feels a hand stroking his head gently, and somehow that’s enough. With the comfort comes a growing realization: his boyfriend doesn’t say much, but he always shows what he means through his actions.

Woohyun doesn’t know why he’s never seen it this way before; why he had always end up arguing about not understanding what his boyfriend is thinking because he’s a man of few words. Maybe it’s because he himself uses words so much to express what he’s thinking and feeling, and he thought everyone else would do it the same way. But Woohyun’s starting to see that maybe his boyfriend’s lack of words and long silences aren’t so much because he doesn’t want to tell Woohyun what’s on his mind, but because he’s using a different method other than words to communicate.

The stroking of his head pauses, the hand moving down to his back where Woohyun feels circles being rubbed slowly, and a little of the jittery tension he hadn’t realized was in his back eases out. Woohyun lets himself be held like this a little more, sniffing a little and wiping the last of his tears away.

It’s not like he suddenly understands his boyfriend perfectly because he finally realizes this – they still need to talk about the fight last night and also work through the problems raised during the arguments yesterday – but for once, Woohyun doesn’t feel like there’s a stone weighing on his heart from what he perceived to be a lack of communication borne from a lack of concern. Maybe that has always been his own insecurity speaking. Woohyun snuggles into the body warm against his, resting his head in the space between his boyfriend’s neck and chest, wrapping his arms around the solid waist in front of him. He knows he has his own problems to work out too and he can’t put the blame of their miscommunication all on his boyfriend. That’s something he has to work on, but for now, there’s something more important.

“Hey,” Woohyun mumbles, and his boyfriend pauses his hand which had been soothing Woohyun’s back. It’s like a silent “ _Yeah?_ ” and Woohyun smiles a little. Maybe he’s finally starting to understand this nonverbal communication.

“We still have a lot of things to talk about, but I wanted to tell you this first.”

Another silence, but Woohyun knows it’s not the dead silence he thought it was because his boyfriend holds his shoulders to push him back so they can see each other’s eyes. The look he sees on the face in front of him is silent but attentive, firm but earnest. Woohyun doesn’t know why he hadn’t realized it earlier: the amount of attention he’s showered with and how much his boyfriend _cares_ for him. Even if his boyfriend isn’t the best at talking, he’s still _communicating_ with Woohyun in his own way.

He feels another lump growing in his throat at the thought, but Woohyun pushes it down because he needs to say something first.

“I love you so much, Howon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notidol!Woohyun’s boyfriend’s identity is revealed, finally! Did anyone guess it? Lol.
> 
> Alas, this is also the end of the main part of the story, although there is still an epilogue. When rereading this during editing, I was wondering if there should be more wooya interactions but since that was not really the main plot focus of the fic (the waking up in a parallel universe bit is the main plot), I left this chapter as it is. Maybe if I have the time and motivation, I might write a one-shot sequel or one-shot prequel... (no guarantees though). Anyway, I hope you are still looking forward to the epilogue because it’s going to reveal a bunch of interesting things, including the reason why this fic is titled “Destiny”.
> 
> Also, I’ll love to hear what you think about the story so far! Do leave me comments if you enjoyed reading. I'm actually very curious to hear what you guys think about this story since I don't usually do crack (is this still crack now? Heh).
> 
> P.S.: idol!Hoya and idol!Woohyun are thirsty af lol.


	7. Epilogue

The breeze is light and it’s a little too hot at this time to be on the rooftop, but he doesn’t care. He’s busy watching two men walk out of a café with their hands tightly interlaced from his vantage point hidden from pedestrian view. Sipping at the coffee he brought with him, he takes a photo for proof, but apparently he doesn’t need to, because the one he wants to send the photo to appears beside him.

“Did you think it was funny?” the guy says as he plops himself down beside him.

“Of course it was funny, hyung,” he answers breezily.

His hyung doesn’t look terribly amused, but then this is the same guy who has always been a bit of a stick in the mud about the ways they should be carrying out their duties.

“Well, can you at least tell me next time if you’re going to dump my charge into a parallel universe _before_ you do it, Lee Sungyeol?”

“But hyung, it _worked_ ,” Sungyeol whines, and it did, because the red thread around the ankles of the two men walking on the street is now brighter than ever. He points it out to his hyung, but all it does is earn him a light smack on the head.

“Aish, Sungyeol. I know you were a Jokester before this, but you have been reassigned to be a Cupid, and you can’t do things the same way as you did before,” his hyung chides.

“But hyung, it’s _fun_ ,” Sungyeol grumbles, rubbing the sore spot on his head. “And besides, it did the trick, didn’t it? I saved you the trouble of doing the job twice, in two universes even.”

His hyung’s already small eyes narrows at him, and Sungyeol is about to raise his hands up to fend off another smack when he hears –

“Aish, fine. You’re right, it got two pairs of Nam Woohyun and Lee Howon together, but do you know how minute that is in the greater scheme of things? I still have infinitely many more Nam Woohyuns and Lee Howons to bring together in all the other universes.”

“But hyung, you _love_ your job,” Sungyeol retorts jokingly, even though this is technically _their_ job (to be fair, Sungyeol’s mostly the assistant doing odds and ends while most of the actual work is done by his hyung, but who’s minding the details, right?). Anyway, Sungyeol’s pretty sure he got himself into trouble by saying that, if he hadn’t already.

“Nice try, _Yeolna_ ,” his hyung grates out drily as he snatches Sungyeol’s coffee to take a sip himself.

“Oh my gosh, can you not? Don’t call me Yeolna when I’m not working! You know how much I hate being a woman,” Sungyeol huffs, and he grabs his coffee back. _Buy your own_ , he thinks, but when the other sighs softly and coaxes an arm around his waist, Sungyeol lets him.

“I’m sorry. I was just frantic when I realized Nam Woohyun went missing in this world, and I had to search through all the other worlds before I found one where there’s two of him. Do you know how long that took me?”

Sungyeol bites on the straw for a while, but eventually he says, “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you next time.”

It’s a compromise, but that’s something Sungyeol’s learned to do because even his ever so stubborn partner managed to learn that.

“I love you, Sungyeol, but sometimes I regret choosing you for my partner as Cupid. You make my job so much harder,” his hyung mumbles from beside him, and Sungyeol turns to look at him properly.

After a beat, Sungyeol puts down his coffee, reaching for his hyung’s hand to interlace their fingers, before he says, “I love you too Sunggyu. But you knew what I’m like from the beginning. I’m a choding, I play tricks, and I’m as far from serious as I can be until I don’t have a choice.”

Sunggyu doesn’t say anything, just nudges Sungyeol’s foot with his toes, and Sungyeol sees their own red thread tangled up around their ankles. It’s a reminder that they’re _destined_ for each other, but Sungyeol also knows the red thread isn’t the only thing tying them together. No, it’s also the commitments and the compromises they make for each other, their mutual understanding and love which allows the red thread to shine brightly. Without those, two people can be tied together by the thread but still never truly be _together_.

 _Destiny is also what you make of it_ , Sungyeol remembers Sunggyu saying the first time they met each other. It’s a long long time ago, and the memory is faded around the edges, but Sungyeol has always carried those words close to his heart since then (like _literally_ , because he had them tattooed on his chest in case he forgets).

Sungyeol closes his eyes, trying to clear his mind and leans into Sunggyu’s chest as he watches their red thread, a little dull compared to better days when they’re just _happy_ , but it’s still pulsating brightly enough.

After a long while when Sungyeol almost forgets what they’ve been talking about because Sunggyu’s chest is soft and comfortable and he’s sleepy, he hears Sunggyu whisper, “I love you, you know, even if I get frustrated sometimes.”

Sungyeol nods. They’ve been through this so many times, but it’s still good to hear the words.

“I know. I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Sunggyu calls Sungyeol Yeolna because he can’t stand the cheesy and sappy atmosphere for too long, and Sungyeol has to chase Sunggyu around because he hates being called Yeolna. The end.
> 
>  
> 
> No, but really, lol. Did anyone expect the epilogue? Did anyone realise this was a soulmates AU being set up? Haha.  
> Also, I do realise that the red thread is a very Asian idea, while the terms Cupid and Jokester are more Westernised, but I couldn’t think of an appropriate Asian term for Cupid and Jokester (mostly Jokester), so I just went with calling the jobs Cupid and Jokester. Don’t mind that little inconsistency.
> 
> Anyway, if you reread the earlier chapters, you can see traces of Cupid!Sungyeol’s doings, pulling notidol!Woohyun from his world to the other. It’s why the chicken restaurant is called Choding Chicken Restaurant and why it’s the only place with a number that works in both worlds. Other stuff which are Sungyeol’s doing:  
> \- Yeolna’s appearance leading notidol!Woohyun to the fansign, and how she just happened to have an extra ticket which she just happens to give to notidol!Woohyun.  
> \- Yeolna being the one who gave notidol!Woohyun a plausible (if highly ridiculous) excuse to explain why he looks like idol!Woohyun (plastic surgery). 
> 
> You can also see how Cupid!Sungyeol made use of the fact that notidol!Woohyun has a friend (Sunggyu, who may or may not be a different world’s version than the Cupid!Sunggyu in this epilogue chapter…I’m not saying anything haha) who’s into male idol groups and used Woohyun’s knowledge of that information to help him find his way in the parallel universe. Then there’s the bit about Sunggyu (which Sunggyu is this I wonder?) nudging idol!Woohyun to look at idol!Hoya’s interaction with notidol!Woohyun at the fansign, and also Sunggyu (again, which Sunggyu?) being the one who had told idol!Hoya multiple times to go and confess to idol!Woohyun already.
> 
> I might have missed out some, but if you do reread the story, I encourage you to find all the interventions done by Cupid!Sungyeol and Cupid!Sunggyu. :)
> 
> And if it’s not obvious by now, notidol!Woohyun woke up in a different universe because of Sungyeol’s doing, and nothing else. Him assuming it’s due to what he said, or what idol!Hoya wished for is just that – assumptions. Lol. Still, it made for interesting situations, no?
> 
> I had a lot of fun plotting this story which really started from the idea of “what if Woohyun is a fan of Woohyun” and I hope you had fun reading it. Comments and kudos are very much welcomed!


End file.
